Swiss prosecutors investigated over confidentiality breach in Yukos case

BERN (AFP) - The Swiss public prosecution service, which blocked billions of dollars of assets belonging to Russian oil giant Yukos, is itself being investigated for breaching confidentiality, the Neue Zuercher Zeitung newspaper said.

The inquiry was ordered as a result of a complaint by the Menatep holding company, the principal creditor of Yukos. The oil conglomerate warned earlier this month that it faces bankruptcy because of swingeing government tax claims, and its founder, Mickhail Khodorkovsky faces up to 20 years in prison on a charge of tax fraud and embezzlement, according to his lawyer.

Prosecutor Yves Maitre told NZZ that he was appointed on August 24 to begin a six-month investigation, following the publication in the Swiss magazine Hebdo of a letter revealing that the prosecution service had volunteered information to the Russian authorities about Yukos accounts.

The letter informed the Russians that 6.2 billion Swiss francs (5.3 billion dollars, 4.1 billion euros) worth of Yukos assets had been provisionally frozen in five Swiss banks.

The Moscow prosecutor then formally asked for the accounts to be blocked and the Swiss complied, making it the largest such sequestration on record.

Although the Swiss authorities claimed to be acting under the scope of international money laundering laws, Switzerland's highest court, the Federal Tribunal, later lifted the sequestration of more than four billion Swiss francs, saying that the original amount frozen was disproportionate.

But by that time, Yukos was fighting for its life as the Russian government slapped on tax claims that the company could not pay from its available assets. Many commentators said the action against Yukos was intended to thwart the political ambitions of Khodorkovsky, one of Russia's richest men.

Lawyers for Yukos accused the Swiss authorities of acting with excessive zeal, and of failing to properly invesigate the "insufficient" arguments presented by the Russian prosecutor.

Swiss federal prosecutor Valentin Roschacher has rejected these accusations, saying that his investigators had consulted the Russians on points that did not appear clear.

He also rejected criticism that he was acting as an "auxiliary" for the Russian government.

(From Yahoo! News, 07.11.2004)